The Cyclops (1957)An expedition to Mexico finds and does battle with a mutated 25-foot man with one big eye. Director:Bert I. GordonWriter:Bert I. Gordon |
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The Cyclops (1957)An expedition to Mexico finds and does battle with a mutated 25-foot man with one big eye. Director:Bert I. GordonWriter:Bert I. Gordon |
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| Complete credited cast: | |||
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James Craig | ... |
Russ Bradford
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Gloria Talbott | ... | |
| Lon Chaney Jr. | ... |
Martin 'Marty' Melville
(as Lon Chaney)
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Tom Drake | ... |
Lee Brand
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Duncan 'Dean' Parkin | ... |
The Cyclops (Bruce Barton)
(as Duncan Parkin)
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Vicente Padula | ... |
The Governor
(as Vincent Padula)
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Marlene Kloss | ... |
The Salesgirl
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Manuel López | ... |
The Policeman
(as Manuel Lopez)
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Susan Winter undertakes an expedition to a remote area of Mexico, hoping to find her fiance, Bruce Barton, whos plane-crashed there some time ago. The area is suspected to have a good supply of uranium, so Susan has promoted this to wealthy Martin Melville to get money for her expenses. In addition to Melville, she is accompanied by guide Russ Bradford and pilot Lee Brand in his small-engine craft. But the plane crashes, stranding the four in an isolated valley, which they soon discover is highly radioactive and inhabited by mutated life forms - giant insects, enormous lizards, and a 25-foot-tall human male with a deformed face, just one eye, and only brute animal instincts to feed and protect its turf... Written by Rich Wannen <RichWannen@worldnet.att.net>
Four adventurers go searching on a radio-active island for the girl's lost love. What they find is a couple days work for a special effects department.
Okay, the reason I tuned in was to catch cult favorite Gloria Talbott in another of her Z-grade drive-in films. She does manage to get into a tight sweater, but she also looks like she swallowed a lemon. There's none of that charming fright girl from her classic I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958). Here she just looks glum, like she can't wait to exit the set. Too bad.
The rest of the movie almost reaches camp level. The monster's make-up looks like they stuck a billiard ball in one eye and left a Kleenex on his cheek. Besides that endless grunting almost left me hearing impaired. Then too, Chaney acts like he's going to make up for the general lack of motivation all by himself. For former A-movie actors like Craig and Drake, this must have suggested the end of the road, which may be why they just walk through their parts.
Sure, it's easy to make fun of a drive-in cheapo like this. But even on that lowly scale, this Bronson Canyon, LA Arboretum, special is nothing else than a bad horror movie, dear Gloria or not.